Today’s guest post is from Dale Pritchett, Senior Vice President and Co-Founder of Logos Bible Software.

In the eighteen years we’ve been in business, the single most popular, and perhaps most important, Pre-Pub title we have ever offered is Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software.

For many years now, schools have been downsizing Greek and Hebrew programs due to decreasing demand. Students have been opting-out of the rigorous language programs in such numbers that we now estimate that less than fifteen percent of all seminary students complete a Greek or Hebrew language course as part of their degree program. You have to believe, as a result, the exegetical skills in the pulpit have been greatly reduced. This concerns us greatly.

This is something we care about.

To change the status quo, we developed Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software. This series is targeted at the eighty-five percent who opt-out of traditional language programs, as well as those who need to re-invigorate their once-learned skills. We hoped this series would help reverse the trend and make original language studies more accessible to average students. Little did we know how huge the response would be.

Everyone should experience the Bible in the original languages.

We are reaching out this one last time to encourage you to place your Pre-Pub order right away before the price goes up. We encourage you to join literally thousands upon thousands of Logos Bible Software users across the world who are committed to taking their Bible study to the next level by digging into the original languages, perhaps for the first time ever.

You can do this.

The videos are step-by-step. Self-study at your own pace. No previous knowledge of Greek or Hebrew is required. Even English grammar is explained. No rote memorization of forms or paradigms either. You can do this, and we are here to help.

A couple of weeks ago, the two instructors sat down to talk about their experience with the project. Listen to their thoughts here:

The time is now.

Logos users have chosen to pre-order this video series more than any other product we have ever offered on Pre-Pub. In fact, we even had to delay the ship date by two days just to account for the sheer quantity of DVDs we had to order. The good news for you is that it gives you one final chance to get in on the discount.

The training you need to finally get into the original languages is ready. Read more about this incredible training series, watch the introductory videos, preview some of the videos in the series, and place your order right away before the price goes up.

You should follow us on Twitter here.

Congratulations to Rebecca S., the recipient of our most recent $1,000.00 Seminary Scholarship. Rebecca is currently a part time student at Luther Seminary, enrolled in their distance education program. This coming fall, she’ll be moving to St. Paul, MN, to attend Luther Seminary full time.
As the winner of the scholarship, Rebecca received a $1,000.00 tuition scholarship and a copy of Logos Scholar’s Library.
We are currently taking new application for our next scholarship, which will be awarded on August 10th, 2010. If you are a seminary student, please head over and apply today.
What about Bible College students?
If you’re currently working on your undergraduate degree at a Christian or Bible College, then you should apply for our Bible College Scholarship. Like our seminary scholarship, three times a year we give one student a $1,000.00 tuition scholarship plus a copy of the Logos Scholar’s Library. To learn more, and apply, visit www.BibleCollegeScholarship.com.
Increase your odds of wining the scholarship!
Unlike most scholarship where you don’t want a lot of people to apply because it decreases your chances of winning, the opposite is true with our Seminary and Bible College Scholarships. After you have applied, tell all your friends to apply and to enter your name in the “How’d you hear about this scholarship” section of the application. If the scholarship winner has entered your name, you BOTH win the scholarship! So, the more people who apply and enter your name as the one who referred them, the more chances you have to win $1,000.00 for tuition and a copy of the Logos Scholar’s Library.
Seminary students, apply here:

Bible College students, apply here:

Today’s guest post is from Johnny Cisneros, Product Manager for Systematic Theology, and co-instructor of Learn to Use Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software.

Moving from Digital Crutch to Digital Tool

When I was taking Greek and Hebrew, professors and teaching assistants continually warned us, “Don’t rely on Bible software to help you because it will become a crutch.”

They said that with good reason. The whole point of the language course was to be able to read the Greek New Testament or Hebrew Bible at sight (i.e. with little or no help from a parsing guide or lexicon).

In order to reach that goal, we spent the first year memorizing paradigms, vocabulary, grammatical terms and constructions, and doing basic translation. Weekly assignments could take anywhere from three to nine hours to complete. This went on for about twenty weeks.

I still have fond memories of sitting at a local coffee shop, filling out a custom made spreadsheet for Greek verb paradigms. I even bought a whiteboard for home so I could write out Hebrew verb paradigms first thing in the morning (crazy, I know). Each paradigm memorized was like another trophy earned.

But I learned that not every student felt the way I did. Not every student wanted to get involved in scholarship. Not every student made their own paradigm spreadsheets. At some point during the first year, they lost heart—unable to see the payoff. Faculty encouraged students to persevere with the promise that in the second year they would see that value of what they had learned.

But in first year, when the goal is identify everything word, form, and construction by sight, is software a crutch?

Yes.

So how can we call our software a tool?

Simple. We changed the goal.

Our goal in Learn to Use Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software is not for you to sight read the Greek NT or the Hebrew Bible without the helps. Instead, it’s to understand how to use the helps for interpreting the Bible. Do we still require you to be able to accurately identify the form of a particular word? Absolutely! But we don’t make you memorize a chart; we use our Visual Filter technology. After all, the inability to recognize liquid aorist verb at sight is not what makes a preacher “dangerous” with the biblical languages; it is being uninformed as to how the aorist tense works.

In Learn to Use Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software we introduce you to the grammatical concepts of a second year course, bypassing the paradigm chart and vocabulary that are supposed to be memorized in the first year. We show you how those concepts connect to English Bible translations, comparing their interpretations of the Greek and Hebrew. We open up commentaries that make use of the original languages so that you can get more value out of your library. And we demonstrate how you can apply those concepts to our original language tools and databases, the majority of which are unique to Logos Bible Software. Finally, we include principles for interpretation so that you can avoid some of the common mistakes.

Not only are these objectives more relevant for a teaching ministry, but the approach is sustainable in ministry.

So whether you are a student, pastor, or professor, there is something here for everyone. Order your copy of Learn to Use Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software today and move from digital crutch to digital tool.

During the past few months, we’ve been hard at work on Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software, a complete video introduction to using Logos Bible Software for learning and studying the Bible in the original languages. We’re almost finished with the series, and we plan to ship in just a few days.

A few days ago, Mike and Johnny—the two instructors in the videos—sat down to talk about the project. You can view their conversation below.

If you’ve got a little more time, be sure to check out some of the additional footage and sample videos posted on the product page.

Remember, Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software ships in just a few days. The price will jump to $499.95 next week, so make sure you pre-order it today for $159.95 while you still can.